Speaker Biman Banerjee termed Wednesday's verbal spat between the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, and TMC MLA Tapan Chatterjee in the Assembly lobby as "unfortunate", urged legislators to "behave with restraint" and promised that there was no reason for anyone to feel insecure in the House.

The Speaker’s statement comes a day after TMC MLA of Purbasthali Purbashthali (Uttar) confronted the Nandigram MLA in the Assembly lobby over his Lok Sabha poll campaign statements, prompting Adhikari to write to the Speaker alleging a "lack of security" in the House.

Admitting in the House that the "incident has happened", Banerjee said: “Both of you have given written complaints. I had spoken with the Marshall. The incident is true, but it would have been better if it hadn't happened.”

“The incident is unfortunate and we should behave with restraint so that this kind of incident doesn’t happen again,” he added

“Inside the Assembly, we have intense discussions. This happens everywhere, but outside the Assembly, we should conduct ourselves in a friendly manner. This is a decorum,” the Speaker said.

He requested the MLAs not to drag outside issues to the Assembly.

The Speaker was indirectly referring to the allegations raised by the TMC MLA from East Burdwan, who claimed that the leader of the Opposition had made false statements about his financial condition and daughter's educational qualifications during the Lok Sabha poll campaign.

“I asked Suvendu to hand over the keys to my two flats in Calcutta as he knows where they are. He went to my constituency before the Lok Sabha polls and claimed I had bought two flats in Calcutta with ill-gotten money. He also claimed that my daughter passed (Madhyamik) in the third division. No, she is a double MA,” Chatterjee had said on Wednesday.

The Speaker said that no member of the House needed to feel threatened or scared as there was no lack of security inside the Assembly. He was referring to a letter written by Adhikari in which the latter alleged that the lawlessness across Bengal seemed to have infiltrated the Assembly.

Although Adhikari was not present in the Assembly on Thursday, disgruntled BJP MLAs raised slogans against the ruling party and Chatterjee, in particular, in the House.

“This is typical of how TMC operates. If they can use foul language against the President of the country, it's not surprising that they would speak this way to the leader of the Opposition. The more a Trinamool leader uses foul language, the more likely they are to get promoted. Now, Tapan Chatterjee might receive a promotion," BJP leader Agnimitra Paul said.